Colombia

The Republic of Colombia (1886-) is a country located in northwestern South America. With its capital at Bogota, it is 440,831 square miles, and is the most biodiverse country per square mile, as well as a megadiverse country in population terms.

History
Colombia was founded in 1886 after the breakup of the United States of Colombia, and was politically unstable. The instability resulted in the Thousand Days' War between the Colombian Liberal Party and the Colombian Conservative Party, raging from 1899 to 1902. A side effect of this war was the independence of Panama, which was granted independence in the Hay-Bunau-Varilla Treaty, signed by United States Secretary of State John Hay and French lawyer Philippe-Jean Buneau-Varilla, who was representing the Panamanian rebels. Panama was made independent, and the Panama Canal was constructed.

Colombia continued to disintegrate into the 20th century, with the Colombia-Peru War of 1 September 1932-24 May 1933 leaving up to 450 Colombian and Peruvian troops dead (albeit mostly from jungle disease). From 1948, when liberal presidential candidate Jorge Eliecer Gaitan was killed until 1958, when the Colombian National Front was formed, Colombia was engulfed in La Violencia, a ten-year period that included the El Bogotazo riots that killed 180,000 Colombians across the country.

Under President Laureano Gomez, Colombia fought in the Korean War as an ally of the USA, and their troops were famous for their heroism at Old Baldy. However, warfare returned to Colombia in 1964 when the National Front tried to make far-reaching reforms, causing the FARC, Popular Liberation Army, MAQL, and M-19 to rise up in rebellion, starting the Colombian Civil War. As a part of the Cold War and the fight against communism, the United States aided Colombia in fighting the left-wing Marxist FARC rebels. In the 1970s to the 1990s, Colombia also battled drug cartels such as the Medellin Cartel of Pablo Escobar, who was influential in politics as well as the drug trade. In 2014, there were significant breakthroughs in peace talks between the FARC and the government.

As of 2012, Colombia produced 1,000,000 barrels of oil a day, being the third-largest oil producer in South America. Cuban doctors have been sent to Colombia in exchange for Colombia exporting some of its oil to Cuba, a simple trade of services.

Culture
In February 2015, Colombia had a population of 48,014,026 people, with 49% of the population being mestizo, 37% white, 10.6% black or mulatto, 3.4% American Indian, and .01% Gypsy. Recently, the city of Barranquilla has had an influx of Lebanese and Palestinians, among other Arabs, while Colombia also has important communities of Chinese, Japanese, Gypsys, and Jews.